The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 09, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 29, 1999
David Russell Armstrong, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and an associated system and computer program product for determining sequences suitable for testing an electronic system that is comprised of a set of nets. Each net of the system provides an interconnect between a set of nodes. The method includes a step in which nodes that are enabled by a common enable latch within the system are identified. Each commonly enabled node is associated with a node group. Each node group includes the set of nodes that share a common enable latch. Contending node group pairs within the system are then identified. A contending node group pair is any pair of node groups in which at least one commonly enabled node of the first node group and at least one node of the second node group reside on a common net. Sequence numbers, preferably for use in defining a boundary scan test sequence, are then assigned to each commonly enabled node in the system. The assignment of the sequence numbers is performed such that sequence numbers for each node within a node group are the same, while sequence numbers associated with pairs of contending node groups differ. In one embodiment, the method further includes the step of assigning sequence numbers to nodes that are controlled by a dedicated (i.e., non-shared) enable latch. In one embodiment, the assignment of test sequences is optimized to maximize the number of nodes that are driven during a selected test sequence to maximize test coverage for a shorted nets test.